Sacrifice Regained : Morality and Self-Interest in British Moral Philosophy From Hobbes to Bentham

Does being virtuous make you happy? Roger Crisp examines the answers to this ancient question provided by the so-called'British Moralists', from Thomas Hobbes, around 1650, for the next two hundred years, until Jeremy Bentham. This involves elucidating their views on happiness (self-interest, or well-being) and on virtue (or morality), in order to bring out the relation of each to the other. Themes ran through many of these writers: psychological egoism, evaluative hedonism, and—after Hobbes—the acceptance of self-standing moral reasons. But there are exceptions, and even those taking the standard views adopt them for very different reasons and express them in various ways. As the ancients tended to believe that virtue and happiness largely coincide, so these modern authors are inclined to accept posthumous reward and punishment. Both positions sit uneasily with the common-sense idea that a person can truly sacrifice their own good for the sake of morality or for others. This book shows that David Hume—a hedonist whose ethics made no appeal to the afterlife—was the first major British moralist to allow for, indeed to recommend, such self-sacrifice. Morality and well-being of course remain central to modern ethics, and Crisp demonstrates how much there is to learn from this remarkable group of philosophers. Cover Sacrifice Regained Morality and Self-interest in British Moral Philosophy from Hobbes to Bentham COPYRIGHT DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTENTS 1 Introduction: The Morality Question 1. Self-interest and Morality 2. Psychological Egoism 3. Rational Egoism 2 Hobbes: The Return of Gyges 1. Psychological Egoism in Hobbes 2. Rational Egoism in Hobbes 3. Hobbes on Morality 4. The Response to the Foole 3 More: An Enthusiasm for Virtue 1. Virtue and Hedonism 2. The Pleasures of the Boniform Faculty 3. Who is the Competent Judge? 4 Cumberland: Divine Utilitarianism 1. Egoism as a Natural Necessity 2. The Law of Nature 4. Agreement and the Rationality of Maximization 5. The Birth of Utilitarianism 6. Deontology and Self-interest 5 Locke: The Sanctions of God 1. The Response to Hobbes 2. The Law of Nature 3. Morality and Self-interest 4. Well-being, Morality, and Pleasure 6 Mandeville: Morality After the Fall 1. The Fable and Mandeville’s Rigorism 2. Worldly Virtue and the Invention of Honour 3. Private Vices, Public Benefits 7 Shaftesbury: Stoicism and the Art of Virtue 1. Repression, Acceptance, and Badness 2. Human Nature and Motivation 3. Ethical Aestheticism 4. Pleasure and Virtue 8 Butler: The Supremacy of Conscience 1. Human Nature and the Supremacy of Conscience 2. Self-love and Benevolence (i) Self-love (ii) Benevolence, Compassion, and Love of our Neighbour 3. Butler’s Ethics 4. Self-love and Virtue 9 Hutcheson: Impartial Pleasures 1. God, Morality, and the Will 2. Impartial Beneficence and Subordinate Virtues 3. Two (or Three?) Grand Determinations 4. The Highest Pleasures 10 Clarke: Virtue and the Life Hereafter 11 Reid: The Goodness of Virtue, and its Limits 12 Hume: Morality as Utility 1. Hume, the Moral Anthropologist? 2. Ethics of Action, Ethics of Motive 3. Maximandum and Maximization: Two Objections 4. Utilitarian Impartiality and the General Point of View 5. Hume’s Dualism of the Practical Reason 13 Smith: The Delusions of Self-love 1. Sympathy 2. Normative Standards and the Impartial Spectator 3. Smith’s Ethics 4. Smith’s Dualism 14 Price: Morality as God 1. Price’s Deontological Pluralism 2. Moral Motivation and Moral Worth 3. Virtue as Law, and Supererogation 4. Virtue and Egoism 5. Virtue and Happiness 15 Gay, Tucker, Paley, and Bentham: Variations on the Theme of Happiness 1. Gay: Virtue and its Associations 2. Tucker: Regulus and Virtue Re-enlarged 3. Paley: Rules for Happiness 4. Bentham: Legislating for the Good 5. Conclusion: The Shaping of Modern Moral Philosophy Bibliography Primary Texts Secondary Texts Index "Does being virtuous make you happy? In this book, Roger Crisp examines the answers to this ancient question provided by the so-called 'British Moralists', from Thomas Hobbes, around 1650, for the next two hundred years, until Jeremy Bentham. This involves elucidating their views on happiness (self-interest, or well-being) and on virtue (or morality), in order to bring out the relation of each to the other. Themes ran through many of these writers: psychological egoism, evaluative hedonism, and - after Hobbes - the acceptance of self-standing moral reasons. But there are exceptions, and even those taking the standard views adopt them for very different reasons and express them in various ways. As the ancients tended to believe that virtue and happiness largely coincide, so these modern authors are inclined to accept posthumous reward and punishment. Both positions sit uneasily with the common-sense idea that a person can truly sacrifice their own good for the sake of morality or for others. Roger Crisp shows that David Hume - a hedonist whose ethics made no appeal to the afterlife - was the first major British moralist to allow for, indeed to recommend, such self-sacrifice. Morality and well-being of course remain central to modern ethics, and Crisp demonstrates how much there is to learn from this remarkable group of philosophers."-- Provided by publisher Résumé éditeur : "Does being virtuous make you happy? In this book, Roger Crisp examines the answers to this ancient question provided by the so-called 'British Moralists', from Thomas Hobbes, around 1650, for the next two hundred years, until Jeremy Bentham. This involves elucidating their views on happiness (self-interest, or well-being) and on virtue (or morality), in order to bring out the relation of each to the other. Themes ran through many of these writers: psychological egoism, evaluative hedonism, and - after Hobbes - the acceptance of self-standing moral reasons. But there are exceptions, and even those taking the standard views adopt them for very different reasons and express them in various ways. As the ancients tended to believe that virtue and happiness largely coincide, so these modern authors are inclined to accept posthumous reward and punishment. Both positions sit uneasily with the common-sense idea that a person can truly sacrifice their own good for the sake of morality or for others. Roger Crisp shows that David Hume - a hedonist whose ethics made no appeal to the afterlife - was the first major British moralist to allow for, indeed to recommend, such self-sacrifice. Morality and well-being of course remain central to modern ethics, and Crisp demonstrates how much there is to learn from this remarkable group of philosophers." From Thomas Hobbes to Jeremy Bentham, 'British Moralists' have questioned whether being virtuous makes you happy. Roger Crisp elucidaties their views on happiness and virtue, self-interest and sacrifice, and well-being and morality, and highlights key themes such as psychological egoism, evaluative hedonism, and moral reason in their thought.